New from Cambridge University Press!

Edited By Keith Allan and Kasia M. Jaszczolt

This book "fills the unquestionable need for a comprehensive and up-to-date handbook on the fast-developing field of pragmatics" and "includes contributions from many of the principal figures in a wide variety of fields of pragmatic research as well as some up-and-coming pragmatists."

This book discusses social aspects of bilingualism. It focuses on the manifold opportunities that today's growing bilingual and multilingual societies are being offered and the challenges they are being confronted with.

SYNOPSIS

Joshua A. Fishman opens the first main section with a contribution entitled titled '"Holy languages" in the context of social bilingualism' (15-24). In it he critically analyses the process of 'sanctification'of languages within multilingual societies. Starting from Emile Durkheim's definition of 'holiness', Fishman examines different types of 'holy' languages throughout human history. By doing so, heclassifies these languages according to whether

- one of the two languages is considered inherent holy (17-18),- another language becomes holy by dint of association with the one already considered holy (18),- both languages are considered holy (19-20), or- neither language is considered holy. (20-21)

From there, Fishman takes off to possible 'consequences oflanguage sanctity beliefs' (21-22) and the so-called 'staying powerof sanctity' (22-23), i.e. for example Latin or Hebrew, bothlanguages which due to their 'direct sanctity' live on in holy texts.

John Edwards starts his chapter titled 'Forlorn hope?' (25-44)explaining the genesis of this originally Dutch expression thathas changed its meaning through inaccurate etymology. Thisillustrating word-play and example of cross-language transferserves the author as an interesting example of how an incompletebilingualism leads to misunderstandings, and yet to a meaningfulmisapprehension. The genesis of changing meaning of 'Forlon hoe'serves the author as lead-in to his examination of 'languageecology' perspective on linguistic diversity arguing stable societalbilingualism might be a desirable outcome, however, as difficultto achieve and maintain.

Tove Skutnabb-Kangas's contribution 'When languagesdisappear, are bilingual education or human rights a cure? Twoscenarios' (45-67) continues the discussion of endangeredlanguages, according to Krauss (1992) dividing (oral) languagesinto three groups, the moribund, the endangered and the safeones. She predicts for the two first-mentioned languages alinguistic genocide caused by agents of formal education and massmedia, acting on behalf of economic, military and political groups.Within this context, in analogy to racism and sexism the conceptof discriminating linguicism was created with state educationsystems not only violating the linguistic human rights (LHRs) ofminorities but even contributing considerably to linguisticgenocide. Taking the LHRs perspective, Skutnabb-Kangasexamines the work in international law and in education tocounteract minorisation of languages and, at the same time, topromote the survival of linguistic diversity.

J. J. Smolicz's chapter 'Core values and nation-states' (69-85) isconcerned with the paradox of ethnic and national upsurge in anincreasingly globalized cultural and economic world. Giving thesituation in Australia as an example, according to him linguisticdiversity is contingent on the maintenance and development ofcultural core values of each of the ethnic groups concerned.Smolicz concludes drawing a promising scenario for maintainingdeveloping a nation-wide multilinguism promoted by acknowledging the minorities' right to their cultural heritage. By doing so, Australia fortunately happens to demonstrate a radical departure from the monolingual and mono-ethnic assumptions prevailing there from the beginning of the 20th century until the mid 70's.

The papers in the second section ('Bilingualism worldwide') focus on societal bilingualism, language ideology, its planning,maintenance and shift, respectively, in individual countries.Harold F. Schiffman's contribution 'French language policy:centrism, Orwellian 'dirigisme', or economic determination?'(89-104) examines language policy 'a la francaise' shedding lighton the question of how it is embedded in and proceeds from theso-called 'linguistic culture'.

Juri Viikberg's contribution 'Language shift among SiberianEstonians: pro and contra' (125-144) discusses the factorsaffecting language maintenance and language loss in theEstonian linguistic enclaves in Siberia. Starting out inter aliafrom Grosjean (1982: 107-112) who listed several prominentfactors vital for the survival of migrant groups' languages,Viikberg analyses, besides other factors, social and intrinsicfactors that might have played the key role for the ambivalent,somehow unexpectedly contradictory development of SiberianEstonians' linguistic situation.

Wolfgang Woelck in 'Ethnolects - between bilingualism andurban dialect' (157-170) has a closer look at the effects oflanguage contact in the city of Buffalo, NY. Starting witha review of how fellow authors define the term 'ethnolect' that wascoined in the late 1970's to designate the English of immigrants'descendants long after their originally native languages are lost,Woelck understands this label of specifically Americansociolinguistics as dealing with how these surviving languagecontact features were used to identify citizens' ethnic andlinguistic, respectively, origin. After presenting convincing datasupporting a revised definition of ethnolect, Woelck confirmshimself in advocating a narrower restriction of this term and itsapplication for a clearer and more specific usage, e.g., consideringcriteria such as host-language monolingualism and the relativelyshort life span of language varieties compared to the real-time lifeof a speech community.

Bernard Spolsky's paper 'The development of Navajo-Englishbilingualism' (171-198) analyses the process of Navajo languageloss in the southwestern states of America. On the basis ofSpolsky's paper from 1975 in which he then assessed theprospects for the survival of the Navajo language, in this paper,he attempts to identify the contribution of the various factorsinvolved in the process of its loss especially over the last quartercentury. His conclusion at the end of the chapter can be seen insharp contrast to his enthusiasm about the prospects for thesurvival of Navajo in the 1970's. Despite the fact that Navajo haslasted longer than most other autochthonous languages in theUnited States, it now is endangered, too. According to Spolsky,the move from rural isolation to semi-urban and urban density ofcommunication, i.e. urbanization, has had its sociolinguisticreflexes. Consequently, urbanization has had its regrettable andprobably irreversible effect on the shift from Navajo to English,unfortunately reflecting a general tendency in the US as a whole.

Tim Marr's contribution 'Language ideology, ownership andmaintenance: the discourse of the Academia Mayor de la LenguaQuechua' (199-219) explores the discourse of the Academia Mayorde la Lengua Quechua (henceforth: the Academia) based theformer Inca capital Cusco. This highly critical paper 'concerns theongoing Peruvian project of status and corpus planning beingcarried out by (...) the Academia (.) displaying an ambivalentattitude towards both the nation-sate which it claims to serve andthe speakers whose aspirations it claims to represent' (p. 199).Marr examines the perspectives and ideology of the Academiaconsidering this body 'at best an unreliable ally, and at worst animplacable enemy' when carrying out 'a serious Quechualanguage maintenance project' (p. 199). Marr's less promisingoutlook is that the Academia's members and self-appointedrepresentatives with their roots in the bilingual Cusco eliteevidently confuse their own opinions and aspirations with those ofmainly rural Quechua speakers. According to Marr, thus onemight call into question the Academia's efficacious support for themaintenance of the Quechua language, and simultaneously itsauthority.

Vivian de Klerk's chapter 'Xhosa as a 'home appliance'? A casestudy of language shift in Grahamstown' (221-248) presents acase study of language shift from Xhosa to English amongXhosa-speaking parents and their children attendingEnglish-medium schools in Grahamstown in South Africa. DeKlerk's paper attempts to assess the relative importance of arange of variables influencing the rate of possible language shift.By doing so, the author provides an overview of the ten mainfactors (economics, institutional support, educationalenvironment, education and literacy levels, linguistic networks,language attitudes, language status, language functions, massmedia, gender) which have been identified as playing an essentialrole in stimulating language shift in general. De Klerk thenreports on the relative importance of these factors, i.e. on findingsfrom her longitudinal study carried out in 1998. Despite thereservation of over-interpreting surveys, the author concludesthat, among the children surveyed, shift to English seems to bewell under way and almost irrevocable. In terms of the tenvariables aforementioned, some have proven more prominent(economic and functional factors along with high educationallevels among parents) than others (socio-cultural factors).

In 'Japan's nascent multilingualism' (249-271), the two co-authorsFlorian Coulmas and Makoto Watanabe try to give plausiblereasons why linguistic diversity is increasing in modern Japan.Starting with an historic overview on ethnolinguistic homogeneityconstituted in Meiji Japan, Coulmas and Watanabe draw aconsiderably changed picture of the language situation prevailingin today's Japan. According to them, the current Japanese society'offers the opportunity to study the transformation of a societylargely under monolingual assumptions into one which has cometo terms with greater linguistic plurality' (p. 249). Despite theauthorities' reluctance 'to officially depart from the idea of Japan'shomogeneity, (...) the traditional self-image of Japan as a closed,homogeneous society has begun to break down, and the push formore pluralism is welcomed (...) by many Japanese' (p. 257). Theonce favoured ideals of homogeneity, yes even uniformity, turnout to be obsolete in the face of the challenges modern Japan hasto cope with such as attracting more foreigners than ever before,and, particularly, its rapidly aging citizens. Although thisdevelopment requires more immigrants, so far the authoritieshave failed to implement a corresponding immigration policy orsocial policy. The extent of developing into a more open, i.e. apluralistic society promoting linguistic pluralism as well, might beconsidered a gauge of Japan's reinvention.

The third section 'Multilingual management and education'addresses the issue of language management and languageeducation in multilingual contexts.

Xu Daming's and Li Wei's contribution 'Managingmultilingualism in Singapore' (275-295) examines the motivationsfor the language policies advocated by the Singaporeangovernment. The two co-authors define their objective as toevaluate the city state's activities 'in its attempts to change thelinguistic realities and charter the future development of the' fourofficial 'languages of the country', Malay, Chinese, Tamil andEnglish (p. 275). To this end, they first examine the effectivenessof the measures implemented and actions taken, then theyanalyze the nature of actions in order to characterize them as actsof 'dirigisme' or 'language management' in a manipulating sense.Cutting short the authors' outcome, according to them, languageplanning in Singapore can be called overwhelmingly successful,mainly owing to the planners' management approach.

Bjoern H. Jernudd's paper 'Managing languages at bilingualuniversities: relationships between universities and theirlanguage environment' (297-309) discusses the relationshipsbetween universities and their language environment, moreprecisely, 'how language management theory can diagnose andsuggest solutions to language problems' arising 'in a bilingualuniversity' such as the Hong Kong Baptist University (p. 297).Hong Kong universities operate under a trilingual (English,Cantonese, Putonghua) and biliterate (Chinese, English) policywhereas Putonghua is taught as a subject and, in addition,largely confined to communications with visitors from the PRC.English dominates as a textbook language, serves as a languageof governance and of board meetings, and is furthermore used onoccasions in which Cantonese is not available as shared language.Jernudd then classifies his so-called 'communicative acts inbilingual university settings' into the following 'ad hoc' categories:- teaching acts between students and teachers, - study acts bystudents, - administrative acts between students andadministrative university members, - research acts, - writing andother presentation acts, - service acts by faculty membersaddressing different audiences, - governance acts betweenuniversity representatives and civil servants (p. 299-300). In hisevaluation, Jernudd still sees much room for removing thelikelihood of systematic discourse inadequacies and recommendsaudits of language use. Such, as he calls it, 'joint languagemanagement action' would 'reveal the complex realities ofbilingualism in practice' (p. 307).

Ofelia Garcia and Cecelia Traugh et al. in 'Using descriptiveinquiry to transform the education of linguistically diverse USteachers and students' (311-328) describe the efforts educators intwo US settings are making to continually support linguisticallydiverse schools. The authors first describe the increasedsociolinguistic heterogeneity and socioeducational homogeneity ofthe US in general and of New York in particular. In the furthercourse of the chapter, the authors discuss how a particularresearch methodology such as 'Descriptive Inquiry' could beinclined to regenerate teacher training programme and thus helpdeepen the understanding of bilingual education. According toGarcia and Traugh, this innovative research mode facilitatestransforming a university programme to continually educatemainly bilingual urban teachers, thus supporting the efforts of adual language school with the objective of eventuallyimplementing bilingualism.

The last chapter by William F. Mackey, 'Changing paradigms inthe study of bilingualism' (329-344), simultaneously serving asCoda to the volume, critically reviews key issues in bilingualismresearch over the last two decades. The definitions ofbilingualism, Mackey quotes, range from 'the equal mastery,choice and use of two languages' in the middle of the 20th centuryover considering it just a peripheral phenomenon to a puzzlefrom fringes of such disciplines as social psychology, socialdialectology and social anthropology. From the latterconceptualization of bilingualism in the context of linguistics,bilingualism underwent a revised positioning referring to itsgrowing importance to bilingual or even multilingual societies.Eventually, it became evident that the term bilingualism had tobe redefined taking into account that it had ceased to be lookedupon as a 'peculiar either/or trait', but rather as amultidimensional and widespread phenomenon (p. 331). By the1980's, bilingualism itself began to generate a life of its own, andin the further course it managed to engulf sub-disciplines such as'ethnolinguistics, demolinguistics, glottopolitics, languageplanning and others' (p. 332).

In addition, Mackey outlines a framework for future researchadvocating 'new paradigms for new concepts' that might pave theway 'to new thinking about language' in today's 'increasinglydiverse and complex societies' (p. 342).

CRITICAL EVALUATION

Overall, this is an excellent volume, which met my expectationsupon reading it. The first two contributions to this volume, by Fishman and Edwards, are exemplary papers and those readers already familiar with their linguistic research, of course, cannot help but being delighted to read their chapters.

The last contribution to the opening main chapter by Smolicz is acritical and in its result promising analysis of Australia's dealingwith the country's multilingualism acknowledging its minoritiesthe right to their cultural heritage thus maintaining their cultural distinctiveness, too. All in all, this is an essay easy to read,with particular interest to those not familiar with the languagepolicy carried out in Australia.

Schiffman's investigation on whether French language policymight be motivated by centrism, 'Orwellian dirigisme', oreconomic determinism, comes to the conclusion that 'the fallacy oflinguistic 'dirigisme' is based on supposed parallels with economic'dirigisme'' (p. 99). Interesting as the comparison itself is, I havethe impression Schiffman's chapter lacks the topical relevance tothe more current situation as one fails to find a reference to thenotorious Law No. 94-665 of 4 August 1994 relative to the use ofthe French language (cf. my online references) -- commonlyknown as 'Loi Tourbon' - and its amendments until 20 September2001.

Despite the specificity and thus excellence of Fishman's 'Holylanguages' and Edwards' 'Forlorn hope-?', I take the liberty tochoose Nelde's and Weber's co-authored chapter my favourite as itcoincidentally deals exactly with the profiles of the Germanspeaking minority in Old Belgium and the Sorbian speakingminority in Germany on which I myself only recently published apaper (cf. my print references). Gratefully, their chapter isaccompanied by illustrative figures, maps and tables. Besidestheir sound analysis, in the reference section they give theEnglish translation of German book titles as well as the faithfultranslation of German quotations faithfully to their meaning inthe source language. Unfortunately, there is a minor aspect, i.e.failing to mention the online accessibility of an indispensablesource they refer to throughout the chapter: 'Euromosaic' (cf. myonline references).

To cut short this review so far in great detail, I will only commentfurther on Marr's chapter on the 'Academia Mayor de la LenguaQuechua' and on 'Managing multilingualism in Singapore'co-authored by Xu Daming and Li Wei. In my opinion, at leastthese two chapters deserve an independent remark: as in myopinion justifiably critical Marr's analysis of the Peruvianinstitution is as in some aspects uncritical, yes even somehowindifferent glorifying is Daming's and Wei's hymn of praise forSingapore's policy to manage multilingualism in the South EastAsian city sate. Without my intention to disparage their expertiseas scholars of high renown, maybe the prospect of facinggovernmental reprisals is the cause for their unilateral analysis?

At the end of each chapter, the reader finds five study questionsfor discussion. Following the authors' intention, these questionsare aimed to facilitate further debates about the issues raised anddiscussed in the corresponding chapters. Their demand rangesfrom mainly comprehension questions comprising just one line toentire complexes of questions (e.g. Skutnabb-kangas, Schiffman,de Klerk and Garcia/Traugh) stimulating further discussionamong readers. Another helpful factor is that the key referencesare asterisked so that readers might feel invited to consult themfor more detailed examination.

CONCLUSION

In sum, I consider the present volume worth reading with only avery few reservations. It constitutes a multifaceted compilation ofdifferent aspects on the 'Opportunities and Challenges ofBilingualism' and multilingualism. In my opinion, everybodyinterested in this topic no matter whether experts in the field orlaymen can benefit from it. Its contributions combine sound scientific xpertise with readability.

REFERENCES (print)

Grosjean, F. (1982). Life with Two Languages. An Introduction toBilingualism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Oebel, G. (2002a). The German Language in Belgium. A minoritylanguage, however, not endangered of extinction. In: Journal ofthe Faculty of Culture and Education Saga University, 7 (1),169-182.

Oebel, G. (2002b). European Culture and Languages: The Sorbs(Wends). A Slavonic Enclave within German Boundaries. In:Journal of the Faculty of Culture and Education Saga University,7 (1), 147-151.

ABOUT THE REVIEWER:
ABOUT THE REVIEWER Guido Oebel (PhD in linguistics) is a native German currently teaching German as a Foreign Language (DaF) and FLL in Japan. His main areas of research are: DaF, sociolinguistics, bilingualism, adult education and autonomous learning and approaches, particularly 'Learning by Teaching' (LdL) invented by Jean-Pol Martin of the Catholic University Eichstaett-Ingolstadt (Germany).